How one GOP senator — Rand Paul — caused the super-short shutdown

Sen. Rand Paul is holding up a vote on the Senate budget deal, demanding more debate on the bill which will add $1.5 trillion to the debt over the next 10 years. Lawmakers are facing a midnight deadline to pass the legislation. (Feb. 7)
AP

Sen. Rand Paul, center, takes a brief break from the floor of the U.S. Senate to pose for a photo with Rep. Justin Amash, left, and Rep. Thomas Massie in Washington, DC, on Feb. 8.(Photo: Getty Images)

That's all it took for Sen. Rand Paul, a conservative Kentucky Republican and one-time presidential contender, to trigger a partial government shutdown.

Those two words infuriated and exasperated his Republican colleagues and thrilled his conservative supporters. They also sparked the 20th — and shortest — government shutdown since the 1970s.

It lasted less than 6 hours. But it put Paul — and conservative complaints about the sweeping budget agreement negotiated this week by congressional leaders — in the spotlight.

“We have Republicans hand-in-hand with Democrats offering us trillion-dollar deficits,” Paul said on the Senate floor Thursday night. “I want people to feel uncomfortable" voting in favor of big deficits, he said.

The bipartisan budget deal, which eventually cleared the Senate and the House, will lift strict budget caps and pave the way for lawmakers to spend an extra $300 billion over the next two years on defense and domestic programs. It also includes billions of dollars in "emergency" funding that does not count against the spending caps.

The deal, negotiated by congressional leaders and unveiled late Wednesday evening, infuriated conservatives who objected to the plumped-up domestic spending, and the last-minute, dark-of-night deal.

"We have a 700-page bill that no one has read, that was printed at midnight," Paul noted as the clocked ticked closer to the end of the day.

How could one senator potentially cause a government shutdown? Two reasons: the Senate’s arcane rules essentially invite such mischief-making; and congressional leaders waited until the very last minute to unveil their deal, leaving them vulnerable to legislative glitches.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., filed a motion to take up the budget deal late Wednesday night. Under Senate rules, lawmakers had to wait an “intervening day” before they could vote on that procedural motion, unless they got an agreement from all 100 senators to speed up the clock.

McConnell and his negotiating partner, Senate Democratic Leader Charles Schumer of New York, figured they’d get that agreement. They were wrong. Paul did not agree.

"I can keep them here until three in the morning," Paul said on Fox News Thursday evening. "Nobody wants to have it pointed out what an eyesore this deal is and how obnoxious it is to conservatives."

Paul said all he wanted was a vote on an amendment to restore the budget caps, set in 2011 to rein in deficit spending. But if Paul got a vote on his amendment, then every senator would want one. And if any amendment passed, it would blow up the budget agreement.

Looking exasperated and irritated, McConnell pleaded with his home-state colleague to end his delays and offered to let him make his point with a procedural vote.

"Funding for the government expires in just a few hours," McConnell noted. "I would argue that it's time to vote."

Paul didn't see it that way. "I think it's important that we have this debate," he said.

McConnell had to wait until 1 a.m for his vote to pass the bill, about an hour after government funding had lapsed.